Entertainment

Tesla CEO Says He'll Put Humans on Mars Within the Next 20 Years

If Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX has his way, humans will take their first step onto Mars in 10 years.

Musk said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week that a 10-year timeline was his "best-case scenario" for reaching the planet. Worst case, he said, would be 15 to 20 years.

Musk, also the co-founder of PayPal, founded SpaceX in 2002 to develop launch vehicles for exploring and developing space. The company has already built several rockets suitable for launching cargo, but its stated goal is to send humans to space.

"I want SpaceX to help make life multi-planetary. I'd like to see a self-sustaining base on Mars," Musk said in the interview, most of which focused on Tesla. "...We want to be the shipping company that brought people from Europe to America or the Union-Pacific Railroad. Our goal is to facilitate the transfer of people and cargo to other planets."

NASA's own human spaceflight programs were recently cut, but the organization has been hiring outside companies to devise alternatives. Last week NASA awarded SpaceX a $75 million contract to enable one of the company's spacecraft to carry astronauts.

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